The challenges of air conditioning maintenance have got me thinking about the Ark of the Covenant.

What challenges about HVAC (Heating Venting And Air Conditioning), you ask? The fact that our main unit has some bad switches that must be replaced so that for a few weeks now we have been trying to trouble shoot where the problem is in the system and why it cuts off at times. This past week-end, it would not turn on at all and you may have noticed that our heat indexes for the week have been hovering around 100°.  You can guess what an emergency call to the HVAC company costs on a week-end (a hint: like the heat index, it’s in the hundreds).

The air handlers have been and continue to be a problem. They are running at the end of their lives and when we replace them—which is inevitable and sooner than later—we’ll be spending upwards of 20 to 30 thousand dollars.  Yes, that’s thousands.  Our boiler, which is 40 years old, is doing good (though it’s very inefficient) but that will have to be replaced eventually too.  So with the HVAC issues and the boiler it is simply a fact that were we to have to replace the air handlers and the boiler at the same time, we would deplete our modest endowment. And don’t get me started on utility bills!

So I’ve been thinking about Moses and the Israelites and how they had no building.  I’ve thought of Abraham who had no building. And of course Jesus himself, who preached along the lake shore and as he said had “no place to lay his head.”

So the ark of the covenant was a very large and ornate box that Moses was instructed to have made.  It carried the tablets or covenant of the Law given at Sinai. And it went everywhere with the people as they journeyed. There was a tabernacle or tent set up and the ark would be placed inside it and then the Lord would speak to Moses there.  No building but a portable and mobile tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant.  They would have to wait until King Solomon, son of David, to have a building and I can imagine at some point some Levite priest scratching his head and saying, “Oy, the upkeep on this temple!”

Your trustees, led by our tireless and devoted chairman, are doing their best to oversee these challenges.  But we’re drawing close to a time when we as a congregation must sit down and address these challenges head-on, not only for we who are currently the owners and dwellers of this church but for the future generation of worshippers who will be asked to not only enjoy this place but will be asked to pay for and keep it going.  What might we learn from the semi-nomadic history of Israel and the wandering preaching of our own Lord?

~Pstr

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